OCTA Research Fellow Guido David believes there will not be a surge of COVID-19 cases that will have an impact in the May 9 elections.

''I don't think that we will have a surge that can have an impact right now because (the elections) are just one week away,'' David said in his radio program at dzEC on Sunday.

In a message, David added: ''It would be just an uptick or increase in cases but not on the scale of our omicron surge.''

New COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region grew seven percent during April 24 to April from the April 17-23 period, OCTA Research said earlier Sunday.

Cases went up from 79 to 85 as the reproductive number increased from 0.66 to 0.79, it added.

Despite these metrics, NCR is still at low risk as of April 30, said OCTA.

Healthcare utilization remained very low at 21 percent with ICU at 19 percent. The positivity rate stayed at 1.4 percent. DMS